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Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

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Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#111

Post by mmccaff »

gls2ro wrote: post #36
vhost- wrote: post #28

I really like ngrok. I use it a lot. I just really dislike how the TCP tunnels work. With HTTP you get a unique subdomain which makes it harder for people to just scan and connect. With TCP, it's always 0.tcp.ngrok.io, so you can just scan that domain and connect to anything that's open.

I'not currently using it (so I did not test this) but seems like you have the option of custom TCP as I can see here https://ngrok.com/product#pricing for Pro account.

I use the -subdomain argument for this available in the Pro version and it works perfectly.

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#112

Post by tjoff »

krallja wrote: post #109
tjoff wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need a static IP.

You do need a public IP.

And you probably have one at the office, or you surely do at your hosting service or ... But if you really don't then a VPS with unlimited data is cheaper than ngrok basic plan - and a lot more useful.

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#113

Post by nevi-me »

tjoff wrote: post #93
floatboth wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely you've noticed this: > don't have a static IP that's internet-accessible I am one of those people :) I don't pay my ISP extra for a "real" IP address, so I have literally no way to receive incoming connections from the internet into my home network, it's all behind their NAT.

You don't need a static IP.

The whole reason why I VPN into a box is that it has a static and publicly accessible IP address. Interesting that all the other alternatives proposed basically do the same thing. Point to an URL you control, and proxy traffic to where you want.

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#114

Post by mcv »

Lazare wrote: post #61

A lot of people seem to be a bit confused about the point of ngrok, why it's useful, how much it costs, etc. Let me try and help out. :) For me, the killer feature for ngrok is testing/developing webhooks. You install ngrok in your dev environment, start it up, then point the stripe/slack/whatever webhook your working on at the generated URL. ngrok will 1) proxy that request through to your dev environment 2) log the…

That's is exactly how I used it too: develop locally, but expose it to a payment provider's webhook call through ngrok. It's very convenient, and has the added advantage that you can replay the webhook call without going through the entire process at the payment provider.

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#115

Post by xg15 »

The title of this submission makes it sound like a selling-fridges-to-eskimos scam product - you need to read quite a bit to find out what's it actually about and that it solves (or simplifies) an actual use-case.

I think a better comparision is with DynDNS services: It sets up a public host connected to your own machine - but unlike DynDNS, the host doesn't point to your machine's IP directly. Instead, requests are routed through a proxy/tunnel, so your machine can be kept behind a firewall and is only available through the public host.

(I figure, the proxy allows for some more neat tricks, such as restricting ports/urls/etc or holding requests open while your machine changes IPs.)

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#116

Post by untog »

tjoff wrote: post #99
fredoliveira wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ngrok can not possibly be easier than port forwarding. Oh come on, of course it can. I use port forwarding myself, but ngrok literally makes testing remote webhooks as simple as running "ngrok". That's it. It's definitely what I recommend coworkers who just want a quick solution to test out 3rd party service integrations.

Um, just signing up for ngrok - 10 times more effort than port forwarding. Then you have to learn how to ngrok. And thats that's before actually figuring out what ngrok really is, how sensible it is to route data through a third party etc. etc. etc. For people without public IPs - why not just learn how to setup an SSH tunnel instead? Similar effort , save it as a script. Boom, you actually learned something useful t…

"learn how to ngrok" "figuring out what ngrok really is"

...really? You're trying very, very hard to dislike this tool and it's kind of funny. What is the objection to it, exactly? It makes a task easier. You don't have to use it, but others can.

If you're proposing SSH tunnels as an alternative, where am I SSHing to? I need a publicly accessible remote box. So I'll need to set that up, then set up an SSH tunnel. Or, install a CLI tool and learn one command.

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#117

Post by amjd »

greg5green wrote: post #55
jeremejevs wrote: post #45

Nice tool, but without committing for annual billing (which I don't intend to do, not for the first year of usage) it's $10 a month. My internet connection, my mobile plan, my Photoshop & Lightroom subscription, a huge collection of music (Spotify), 3K~5K movies and TV shows (Netflix), etc., all cost approximately the same. I mean, sure, $120 a year is pocket change for somebody using Ngrok professionally, but that's…

You can use ngrok without paying, you just get weird domains like n56897as.ngrok.com (this is off the top of my head, idk how close I got to a real one). This works fine most of the time.

Custom subdomains are available for non-paying users too. You just need to create a free account.

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#118

Post by sethammons »

kyboren wrote: post #60

PSA: if you want to provide remote access to a local service, but don't want the potentially-terrifying security implications, use Tor Authenticated Onion Services (AKA "HiddenServiceAuthorizeClient" [0]). On a machine on the LAN, install Tor and set up an authenticated onion service, and point it to the desired endpoint. In order to access the service, clients need a manually-loaded encryption key (and Tor, of cours…

How does that work for webhook testing? They are just going to POST to a url you give them...

Re: Ngrok: Secure tunnels to localhost

#120

Post by kuschku »

marmaduke wrote: post #48
jeremejevs wrote: post #45

Nice tool, but without committing for annual billing (which I don't intend to do, not for the first year of usage) it's $10 a month. My internet connection, my mobile plan, my Photoshop & Lightroom subscription, a huge collection of music (Spotify), 3K~5K movies and TV shows (Netflix), etc., all cost approximately the same. I mean, sure, $120 a year is pocket change for somebody using Ngrok professionally, but that's…

I came here to mention Scaleway ARM servers which cost 3/mo with unlimited bandwidth. With reverse SSH tunneling, there's no need for a dedicated service.

This issue gets worse if you use multiple such services. Alone they’re worth it, but combined...

IRCCloud (4$) + ngrok (10$) + some free libre email provider (5$) + 1TB cloud storage (10-12$) + ...

The combined cost for me is enough that it’s cheaper to rent a dedicated octacore xeon with 16G ram, 250G SSD and 1TB HDD and unlimited traffic with a 1Gbps line[1], and run my own services. In fact, I pay less than 50% of what I’d pay for the services, I have far more performance, and can offer these services to 10 people at no cost, and still come in better.

These services might be worth it if you’re in SV, but 10$/mo is something different to a person earning 300k$/year in SV, and to a student earning 8k$/year somewhere else.

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[1] Server price and performance comparisons between several hosters, previously featured on HN: https://gist.github.com/justjanne/205cc548148829078d4bf2fd39...
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